I was going to speak on this issue, but this thread is a good place to do it.
I recently watched the "It's Tricky" video on Youtube, and checked out the comments. I was happy that a song from 1987 has like 87 million views. A lot of the comments were of the variety of "when hip hop was fun" etc. etc. And it made me sad. Not that times change, I've accepted that a long time ago. But it was more how it changed. At around the same time, this video came up on my recommendations about this dude YNW Melly and his whole case. And it was talking about how he had hit the mainstream, doing videos with Kanye before he caught his case for murdering his two best friends. About how in interviews he was talking about his love for guns and how he had been arrested at like 16 for blasting shots at his school. We know about the Young Thug situation. King Von on and on. I mean, people are idolizing straight up serial killers now. Without a thought about it. These guys reach a level in pop culture of a "regular" pop star. People talking about who snitched on who, blah blah blah as if that should have anything whatsoever to do with music. I also got a recommendation for this couple that didn't know hip hop but was reacting to rap videos. The one I watched was Scenario. They were talking about how from what they've seen they prefer the 80s/90s stuff because it seemed like they were having fun. It was a joyful music. And it was. I feel bad that millions of kids can't even conceive of a hip hop where every act wasn't about killing ns every song bytch this, hoe that. I'm not even opposed to darker music - some of my favorite acts/songs are a part of that genre. But that's largely because of the talent of the artists who made it, and even then the older I get the more I have to be in a really specific mood to hear it. And they're like grandfathered in at this point, I don't have a desire to listen to new criminal acts - regardless of if they are good rappers or not. Tired of it. Honestly, if I had a choice back in the day of something different arriving in hip hop instead of those acts, knowing how hip hop turned out, and keeping them at this point I'd choose to let them go.
This is rambling I know, but thoughts I've been having lately about where hip hop went, and the shame it is to me.